The BCS system worked this year. That is what the commissioners of the power conferences are
trumpeting between sighs of relief. Two human polls and six computer-ranking formulas have matched
undefeated Auburn against undefeated Oregon for the national championship. Where's the problem?

Where do we start?

Dan Wetzel, a college football fan who lives in Big Ten country, can supply 200 pages of
answers. Wetzel is a Yahoo! sports columnist and co-author of
Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Published in
October and already in its third printing, it is exhaustively researched, well-presented and
compelling.

The book does what its title suggests: In great detail, it debunks every myth set forth in
defense of the bowl system, exposes a plethora of hypocrisies and offers a saner, more practicable
and more profitable alternative - a playoff.

But forget all of that for a moment. Focus the argument in the present. The Big Ten in general,
and Ohio State in particular, has no shot this year. Did the system work?

That was a question Wetzel was mulling as he made a long drive through snow-covered farmlands
Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Bluetooth technology, he consented to an interview. His thinking is
global, but it acts locally.

"This year, the Big Ten would have three teams alive with just an eight-team playoff," he said.
"Imagine a first-round game with Ohio State playing at TCU, and the winner goes to Oregon. If I'm
an Ohio State fan, not only am I incredibly excited, I'm starting to like my chances (at a title
shot).

"Wouldn't that be better than playing Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl?"

Perhaps this is what Jim Tressel was thinking when, during an appearance on Dan Patrick's radio
show last month, he said, "Within five years, we will be positioned for a playoff of sorts." Of
course, Tressel framed his answer by saying that the BCS is a wonderful thing that works well and
drives interest in the sport.

One must be careful with one's words in the Big Ten. The current stance, as iterated by
conference commissioner Jim Delany during a roundtable discussion in New York last week, is as
follows: Non-BCS conferences have been asking for more and more, and they ought to stop trying to
squeeze the big boys - or else.

The BCS has the power to cut the Western Athletic, Mountain West and other lesser conferences
out of the national picture - and even return to the old bowl system - when present contracts
expire in 2013. Delany was clear on that.

Where is the vision?

Next year, Nebraska joins the Big Ten, further loading the conference. The chances of any team
running the table - be it Nebraska or Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State
or Iowa - will decrease. Meanwhile, the chances that a Big 12 team (read: Texas or Oklahoma) will
go undefeated increase. So, under any system, the Big Ten has to wonder when it will have another
chance to play for a national title, be it against an undefeated Big 12 or Pac-10 team, or a
one-loss team from the SEC.

"Competitively or financially, I don't see how (the present system) helps the Big Ten," Wetzel
said. "There are other teams with weaker schedules who are ahead (in the rankings) right now. This
is no longer an aberration. And the SEC can get away with a one-loss team, but not the Big
Ten."

Forget that the bowl system is inherently flawed in that it cedes the postseason to third-party
fat cats. Forget that the BCS ignores hundreds of millions of dollars that a playoff could make
available to universities desperate to balance the budgets of their athletic departments. Focus on
the present, and ask:

Could Ohio State - which lost one game, to Wisconsin, at night, in Camp Randall Stadium - beat
TCU? What would Wisconsin do against Stanford? Is Michigan a Gator Bowl team?

One hopes that Tressel is right, and some form of a playoff system will be delivered soon to
deserving fans. We all have a vested interest.